Visual Remix Culture: The Legacy of AMVs
If you ever watched an anime you know that music is playing a crucial part in its success.
Just think back to the opening [OP] of a beloved series and you are guaranteed to get hyped up for a new episode. Now, imagine combining your favorite anime show with your favorite song and you got the basic recipe for an almost lost art of early otaku fandom - AMV [Anime Music Video]. Let's take a look at the creative subgenre that was a precursor to our modern internet culture as we know it today.
While some elements of AMVs can be flexible, it is defined in its simplest form as a fan-made music video using a popular song and pairing it with anime clips. [In some cases used excerpts from cartoons or cutscenes from video games can be also categorized as an AMV.] So any officially produced video like “Interstella 5555” by Daft Punk and Leiji Matsumoto or Ken Ishi’s and Koji Morimotodo’s “Extra” do not qualify. The same applies for videos with licenced material e.g. Wamdue Project’s “King of my Castle” and “You're the Reason” which both use Momoru Oshii’s classics “Ghost in the Shell” and “Patlabor 2” as their visual base.
Daft Punk - Derezzed, Akira AMV
Because AMVs are fan made the quality can of course vary drastically and this is exactly what makes it so much fun to watch. You can either ironically watch a trash tier level video with poorly edited 180p footage, hard subtitles and divx watermarks - or you can get blown away by elaborately crafted reimaginings that recontextualize its original source material in a completely new maner. Any type of music or anime is allowed, so the only limitation of what's possible are the skills and imagination of the community. Once you start looking for mashups of any title and artist, chances are very high that you’ll spend more time watching AMVs that you like to admit.
Slipknot - Wait & Bleed, Kenshin AMV
These symbols of anime fan expression were incredibly important at the early stages of the western anime community, because these pashion projects became a rudimentary form of advertising and a gateway into new music and shows. From the 80s to the early 00s most pieces of information were blocked by paywalls in the form of physical media like magazines, VHS tapes, DVDs or CDs. So shared AMVs were a legitimate source of new content in a time before streaming and well developed online databases.
Because the technological infrastructure of creating and sharing AMVs is a key factor in its rise and eventual decline, the history of AMVs is also intertwined with the history of the internet and how we as fans consume media and share our admiration for the things we love the most.
The origin of the very first AMV can be traced back as far as 1982, when the pioneering otaku Jim Kaposztas decided to set random graphically violent scenes from “Starblazers” [Uchū Senkan Yamato, a.k.a. Space Battleship Yamato] to “All You Need is Love” by the beatles for comedic effect. He created the video with nothing but two VCRs and no kind of editing controller. A very laborious endeavor that left little room for errors. Unfortunately the original video was damaged so he did a redo in 1984 which is online on YouTube now, but the audio was muted due to copyright issues [pro tip, open the song in another tab and play them simultaneously]. But before the internet the only way to share your creations were screenings, either in private or at conventions. This is why fan video competitions are still enjoying huge popularity at some expos.
It is no coincidence that the creation and distribution of AMVs grew exponentially with the advent of the digital age, the huge advancements in computer editing software, wider access to the internet and the overall popularity of PCs in private households. Suddenly pirated versions of any digital piece of media could be obtained, edited and shared with enough skills, time and bandwidth. According to Kaposztas the key to a good AMV is to match up a song that works with the images to tell a story. Even if the technology has made leaps and bounds this core idea still holds value to this day. This is especially evident by some of the rawest and most emotionally charged iterations of the medium. Some fans have repeatedly noted in the YouTube comment sections that specific videos have helped them cope with depression or grief because the emotional response to a sad song combined with matching images of an anime with similar themes have an even more potent effect.
Nirvana - You Know You’re Right, Neon Genesis Evangelion AMV
Johnny Cash - Hurt [NIN Cover], Neon Genesis Evangelion AMV
It has since become somewhat of a meme that the typical classic AMV is a combination of intense fighting scenes synced with angsty Nu Metal music. The most popular AMV band has to be without a doubt Linkin Park, which is set countless times to clips from “Dragon Ball Z” or “Naruto”, some of them raking in tens of millions of views. It is hard to deny but somehow the tempo, vibe and aesthetic of songs like “Crawling”, “In the End”, “Faint” or “Numb” just lend themselves perfectly for this kind of visual remix. Another key factor has to be the fact that LP are huge anime fans themselves. In the video for “Somewhere I Belong” Gunpla models are prominently displayed in several scenes and for “Breaking the Habit” DJ and art director Joe Han worked together with Studio Gonzo [“Hellsing”, “Gantz”, “Blue Submarine No. 6”] and Kazuto Nakazawa [“Kill Bill 1”, “Samurai Champloo”, “Animatrix”] to create an original anime video.
Linkin Park - Breaking the Habit, Dragon Ball Z AMV
Linkin Park - In the End, Naruto AMV
Eventually file Sharing sites which hosted an abundance of fan-made content became obsolete due to the crackdown on pirate websites and uploads got streamlined on platforms like animemusic.org and YouTube. Other series that dominated the scene like Hellsing, Elfen Lied, Trigun, Fruits Basket, Serial Experiment LAIN or Yotsuba got replaced by newer popular anime entries. Meme culture, which was still in its infancy, developed an infectious enthusiasm with online users and became a medium that operated in a similar vein and also appropriated content in order to grow into something new. While some early AMVs can be considered as proto anime memes, there was one set of videos in particular that gained a cult status among fans, the “AMV Hell” series. This is a string of comedic shorts that paired various song lyrics and voice clips with matching video footage. A basic concept that still prevails in the age of social media where anyone with a smartphone is not only a consumer but also a content creator and can edit videos and music for Instagram or Tic Toc in just a few seconds. Due time the AMV production standards have also evolved and became more technically ambitious, starting trends and establishing subgenres within the community. The simplest form called lip sync editing, creates the illusion of characters singing the lyrics to a song.
The Mask OST - Cuban Pete, Golden Boy AMV
AMV Hell Part 1
Other creators focused on editing the footage to a tight musical flow, which was enhanced by the heavy use of special effects. Oversaturated bubbly colors were mixed with hyper pop tunes and the addition of 60 FPS [60 frames per second] material had a smooth and gorgeous picture quality as a result. Also continuing match cuts became a prominent trope like in the “Animegraphy” compilation series, which highlights new seasonal anime releases.
Nostromo - Quantum Ripples
Dance Dance Revolution: Ike Ike
Nominus
Animegraphy 2013
Of course the scene also had its fair share of viral hits that absolutely broke the mold of what was conceived possible, with projects that must have taken an unfathomable amount of time to materialize. While most other AMVs reused complete scenes and occasionally boosted them with special effects, some creators decided to basically “cut out” each character animation from the original source material frame by frame to repurpose it into a completely new context. The most impressive productions include videos like “Anime 404” and “Anime's got Talent” which became instant fan classics.
Anime 404 - Baka Oppai
Anime’s Got Talent
Some outings pushed the envelope even further, mixing anime content with other types of animation or fusing them with their very own hand-drawn or CG animated creations, leaving people rightfully confused if these assembled pieces of moving pictures can still be considered as AMVs or maybe even something greater?
Pencil Head
Tribute to Hayao Miyazaki
AMV - F.Y.C
Today AMVs are still a part of the anime community but play a significantly smaller role than a couple of years ago, since other more time saving and interactive trends like live streaming and Vtubing have taken over. Investing countless hours on a short 3 minute clip that uses copyrighted material isn’t working in favor of the YouTube algorithm anymore. Another emerging problem is the new development that japanese license holders are starting to take actions against foreign channels forcing YouTube to delete almost the entire catalog with years worth of content from established AniTubers, despite the fact that they should be protected by the western regulations of fair use of transformative mediums. This also explains why AMVs are a very western phenomenon, because Japanese copyright laws are extremely strict and very unforgiving. Instead the legacy of visual remixes and mashups lives on in a shorter form on Instagram and Tic Toc.
One IG account that quickly gained a sizable following is 90sanimefashion which features a vast collection of screenshots, self edited clips as well as guides to specific types of anime. The blog is the brainchild of Austrian journalist Wera H. who explains that the project was born out of the boredom she encountered during the lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic and she was looking for a creative outlet for her love for vintage anime and fashion : “I enjoy experimenting with the medium. I can express my personal interpretation of an anime or character by combining it with music. It's a creative way of expressing myself and exploring themes of anime, also to introduce them to people who are new to anime. A good AMV manages to tell a story and trigger emotions in just a few seconds. The right song, a sense of timing and synchronization, the right editing technique and the selection of individual scenes and frames is very important. “
Depeche Mode - Cyberpunk AMV
In addition she also noticed the difference in quality and pacing in AMVs attributed to the mechanics of each corresponding platform: “AMVs work very differently on Instagram than on Youtube. Insta AMVs are heavily influenced by the TikTok/Reels culture and need to be much shorter, have less time to build a mood, and are often fast-paced with lots of cuts where normally transitions would be used. Youtube AMVs have been, and still are, significantly longer, slower, and often feature full scenes from an anime.”
But whatever the future holds in store for Anime Music Videos, its impact and pioneering spirit on internet culture will be felt for decades to come, even if it's just sharing private edited photos, videos or audio files on social media. People will always have the urge to express their love of their favorite artist, series, game, movie or whatever fandom they are part of. It always echoes the core idea of setting the mode to create a feeling you can relate to, to inspire people to find new things they can attach themselves to and to connect in a very abstract way through a collectively shared idea.
It is already noticeable how other fan bases have crossed over and made use of similar mechanics. Take for instance Vaporwave producers who combined their sounds to vintage tv commercials that hit you with waves of nostalgia. Shortly after, the Simpsons, Seinfeld and a couple of other communities expanded on this idea and matched up these tunes to excerpts to their respective show, creating the Simpsonswave and Seinwave subgenres. If you think about the now infamous “lofi hip hop radio - beats to relax/study to” YouTube channel you might have noticed that the visual loop is taken from a scene of the Studio Ghibli movie “Whisper of the Heart”. It can hardly be categorized as AMV due to the lack of edited sequences to one specific song but it's clearly inspired by them.
Interestingly enough some current upcoming musicians and rappers are deliberately using unlicensed anime segments and gifs for their uploaded videos, which feels very much like an evolution of the original AMVs. A portion of the Ye fanbase seems also obsessed with creating mashups of him and Neon Genesis Evangelion, mixing his lyrics with music from the anime or doing reimaginings of the iconic opening. It gets harder and harder to define what those products are, whether they are memes, AMVs or an entire new subgenre of YE.MVs.
YE.MV
Ultimately it doesn't matter how you categorize AMVs and how they get made, as long as the creations are made in a good spirit. For most people these fan expressions will be a pure act of passion and dedication and for some others they could be the start to a huge career. Just look at these now legendary fan made shorts for the Daicon Expo produced by a young Hideaki Ano and other future Studio Gainax staff members.
Daicon V
About the author:
Julian Meinert is a hyperactive introvert who hates design by day but
works for your favorite brands at night. On his time off he either screams into microphones with his weird band, or is scheming awesome projects with the local Crunch Corp. crew.
Fun Fact: Wears Gore Tex all the time, although he knows it won't keep him dry from tears.
